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I was made aware that I am the preferred candidate for a 5-year fixed term faculty position in Japan. During my interview, I admitted that this position was not high on my list of preferences; I informed the hiring committee I was waiting for news about whether I would be invited for interviews at several other locations. I have since found out that I will be interviewing for two of these in mid-September/October.

The head of department emailed today asking if I could give an affirmative/negative answer to whether this university is now my top preference. It isn't, but I would be open to changing my mind if for example, they can provide a clear path to a TT or tenured position. I have other questions about details, for e.g. related to the fact that the hiring department is a field adjacent to mine (materials science vs. theoretical physics).

Should I email my clarifying questions about a faculty offer + general questions about Japanese academia to HoD of prospective faculty, or request a video call with him to discuss?

I can see pros and cons of both; emailing, I can clearly articulate my questions, give him time to respond, but may be too much writing/information/time-consuming to respond to; video-calling, more personal but may be perceived as presumptuous or pushy.

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  • Don't email to try to derail, they will know it and won't see it positively. Commented 10 hours ago
  • Hard to answer without knowing something about Japanese academic culture. Other places face to face might be best. Video is a poor compromise generally. Commented 10 hours ago
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    Writing an email that conceivably affects the next decade(s) of your life is โ€œtoo time-consuming?โ€ Commented 7 hours ago
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    @gnometorule What I meant was that responding to an email with 4 or 5 detailed questions can be time-consuming, especially for a HoD. It could take 30+ minutes, which might be the same amount of time as a Zoom call. I updated for clarity. Commented 7 hours ago

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At its core, your question isn't really about Japanese academic faculty hiring (which is admittedly outside of my competence), but about the cleanest way to approach a thorny reply.

Also at its core, your position is actually quite simple: a non-tenure-track position is mostly a backup plan for you, though a tenure-track position at the same institution might indeed be your top choice (at least for all practical purposes; i.e., you would accept without waiting). Everything else is a detail that can be worked out (or not) during negotiations. In particular, your "general questions about Japanese academia" should probably not be addressed to the HoD at all.

Given this, I recommend sending a short, extremely polite reply in which you lay out your position and suggest a video call to discuss further. It may be that the HoD is simply trying to fill the five-year opening and will interpret your response as a "no" -- which it is, so nothing lost. Or it may be that they continue the conversation; this would be the beginning of negotiations and you can then ask your other questions. Good luck.

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  • +1, I agree with this answer. Though there is some benefit to potentially stringing things along if the OP wants to retain the option of the non-tenure-track "backup", it seems unlikely they would be able to do that successfully anyway. Commented 6 hours ago
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I think you are overthinking it :) (Though I should caveat that I am not familiar with the standards of etiquette in Japanese academia.) By the way, congratulations on being the preferred candidate for a faculty position!

It sounds like you are not necessarily sold on this university, but that you have already admitted that to them; and despite that, you are currently their top choice. Moreover, even after hearing this information, they are reaching out to try to recruit you. That puts you in a very strong position, in terms of negotiating power.

It also sounds like (correct me if I am wrong) you would be willing to seriously consider taking a job at this university, provided they make certain accommodations. This is important, because it is the basic criteria that both you and the HoD would use to determine if you should continue the conversation at all, or whether it would be more polite to simply decline them now. You even have some specific asks in mind (quoting in your question): "I would be open to changing my mind if for example, they can provide a clear path to a TT or tenured position. I have other questions about details, for e.g. related to the fact that the hiring department is a field adjacent to mine (materials science vs. theoretical physics)."

In short: if there is anything you need/want that would convince you to take this offer, now is the time to state it! I would not worry about whether it is an email or a video call. Spending 30+ minutes to respond to a candidate is likely the least of the HoD's worries - their worry would rather be losing out on a strong candidate that they could have gotten, merely because you weren't willing to share what you would need in order to accept this offer.

To directly answer your question:

Should I email my clarifying questions about a faculty offer + general questions about Japanese academia to HoD of prospective faculty, or request a video call with him to discuss?

Both an email and/or a video call are absolutely appropriate in this scenario. On the other hand, if you decide that you would not accept this offer anyway, I think you should decline it now to allow the HoD the time to reach out to other candidates.

give him time to respond, but may be too much writing/information/time-consuming to respond to; video-calling, more personal but may be perceived as presumptuous or pushy.

So basically, I think that none of these is the actual concern; the primary concern is - on your end - sharing your requirements honestly with the department head (without caving in to pressure), and - on their end - seeing if there is anything they can do for you to accept their position.

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